Lawyers and judges will eventually determine the meaning and implications of the arcane legalese in the Religious Freedom Restoration Act the Indiana Senate passed this week and sent to the House of Representatives. To get a sense of what's at stake in this legislation, folks like me must...

A union contractor tradesman who's working inside the BP Whiting refinery plant has joined dozens of other workers who've contacted me since United Steelworkers union members joined a national strike on Feb. 7.

The U.S. clean energy sector increased by 250 percent in the past 10 years. In 2011, Indiana started moving toward this bright future by allowing Hoosiers to take part in net metering. In recent years, the costs of energy from solar and wind have been reduced, and their efficiency and...

I see some Christians want a law in Indiana where businesses can apply "deeply held religious beliefs" as a pretext to refuse to serve selected persons. Perhaps they have confused their understanding of Christian behavior with what is accepted behavior in some circles.

The meanness had been building all day. Word had gotten around. Attitudes were hard that day, and they seldom were generous. Pride was at stake, but there was a deeper, angrier, older animosity, too. Unless someone stopped it, this would be trouble.

Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, the 40-day period before Easter when many Christians abstain from animal foods in remembrance of Jesus' 40 days of fasting in the desert before launching his ministry.

As United Steelworkers members working at BP Whiting Refinery enter into their second week of a nationwide strike, they're gaining support from national and local political leaders, some of whom have visited the picket lines formed at various gates to the sprawling complex.

Most people have a decisive stance on Valentine's Day, which lands on Saturday this year. Either it's a warm, mushy excuse to proudly fly your romance flag or it's a commercialized Hallmark holiday that means nothing at all.

I am a longtime member of what the media regularly refers to as the "powerful liquor store lobby." More important, I am a small-business owner who proudly calls Indiana home. Since 1971, my business, 21st Amendment Wine & Spirits, has been a leader in advocating for the responsible sale of...

Preschool matters. A National Research Council report says that until a child reaches kindergarten age, his or her learning development "proceeds at a pace exceeding that of any subsequent stage of life."

It seems that 40 school staff members are being sacrificed to fulfill the ambition of the current resident of the Indiana governor's mansion. How can that be? Well, folks, there is $2 billion in a so-called emergency fund in Indianapolis, which state officials could have loaned to Munster to...

Did the state fire all the plow drivers? I mean I know they have to protect that $2 billion surplus at all costs, but the condition of the roads are pre-20th century. We are all paying exorbitant taxes. We need some return on our investment.

Cannot help but think that Martin Luther King Jr. would have expected President Obama to represent the United States at the Paris Unity Rally. Sometimes I cannot understand what Obama’s strategy for the remainder of his term is going to be. This is a man I voted for twice.

Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night, stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. Except in the Chesterton, Morgan Park area. One-quarter of an inch on the sidewalk and a one inch drift will get you a blue card from the carrier threatening to stop...

Hey, Quickly, great article by Lorrie Woycik on Thursday. Should have been Page 1 instead of Page 16. Now the rest of Northwest Indiana schools needs to research what the Porter County Career and Technical Center is doing to achieve such success and duplicate it for all of our teens.

The article on the consecration of His Grace Bishop Donald Hying was inspiring and much better than reading about shootings, civil corruption, thefts and other criminal activities. May His Grace be worthy of his task and his parishioners supportive.

To the rugged individualist who barked that health is a personal responsibility — I agree with you to a point and that point is the current ridiculous cost of health care. Some of the reasons for ill health are actually out of the control of the individual.

Everything is so expensive in spite of most products being made overseas. We may as well pass a fair/protectionist trade policy and make the products in the USA and employ Americans workers. The prices seem to rise and are expensive whether made here or overseas.

To the Quickly caller claiming that Indiana’s poor health ranking is due to the government: Your health is your problem, not the government’s. Look at factors like obesity, smoking and lifestyle before you blame the government. Start with yourself. Your health is your...

Keep rattling those chains with your strong sermons, Mr. Rutter, but you’re preaching to the choir. Too bad those lunkheads downstate don’t get the message, but I seriously doubt whether they have made the transition to this century.

Today’s panoply of electronic media visits upon us a constant, confetti-like shower of “news.” Sorting the significant stories from the silly ones and the serious from the satirical has become, more than ever, a necessity.

School districts are getting an inadequate share of Indiana’s school funding formula, and this harms local students. Tri-Creek School Corp., based in Lowell, ranks 330 out of 356 Indiana districts in per pupil funding. Tri-Creek has a graduation rate of 96.6 percent. Our middle school,...

As the curtain closes on the latest episode of “Ferguson,” the media series, it is fair to wonder whether events might not have spiraled out of control to the extent they did had the media settled on another topic.

I’m confused by Christine Wilkinson’s complaint about Jerry Davich’s Oct. 12 column regarding a former U.S. Army Reserve soldier who allegedly shook a 2-year-old to death last summer in Chesterton. She believes that Davich should be just as outraged about partial-birth...

Three times a week, I read Jerry Davich’s column. When I read it Sunday, Nov. 16, I was embarrassed and infuriated. It pains me to see my community in the headlines in this fashion and to see a decent person like Allen Johnson slandered.

This week, President Obama will pardon two turkeys to promote the turkey industry. Every one of us can exercise that same pardon power by choosing a Thanksgiving observance without eating turkey. It’s a most fitting way to give thanks for our life, health and happiness.

News reports coming from Missouri these days sound like those we associate with regions of the world we consider backward and unstable. The governor has declared a state of emergency and deployed the military in anticipation of a citizen uprising.

I would like to thank Kevin Guydon, interim director of Gary’s general services department, for the great job his crews did last winter in snowplowing and salting and patching our streets, especially the steep hills in the Miller area. Without that, everybody would have had a much more...

Just wanted to say that the guys on the Crown Point branch-chipper truck and leaf pickup truck are doing a great job and really do very nice work in cleaning up and trying to leave things better than they found them. We appreciate the way they do things in serving us and keeping our city...

Under the Republican “leadership” of Mitch Daniels and Mike Pence, our last two governors, Indiana can proudly proclaim that it’s the eighth-worst educated state in the country, according to a survey by Education Week Research Center.

In the aftermath of the Aurora air traffic control center fire, what I’m not reading in the news is the fine job our controllers did to keep the flying public safe. Yes, travelers were inconvenienced, and while that is upsetting, it isn’t tragic.